Court dings Mountain Valley Pipeline again, this time over rare fish

(Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday invalidated an endangered-species study required for Equitrans Midstream Corp's $6.2 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline under construction from West Virginia to Virginia, concluding that the study was deficient.

The decision comes a week after the same court dealt the project, which is nearing completion, another setback by vacating a key authorization.

On Thursday, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed with environmental groups' claims that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) failed to adequately gauge the entire line's potential impacts on the endangered Roanoke logperch and candy darter fish, before concluding in 2020 that it was unlikely to further imperil them.

Writing for the panel, U.S. Circuit Judge James Andrew Wynn also noted, "In total, the (biological opinion) spends one sentence discussing the impacts of climate change," Wynn said.

Climate change is a growing threat to both fish because storms increasing in intensity can muddy the waters they inhabit, the ruling says.

Wynn said that the biological opinion failed, too, because it rests on an inadequate evaluation of the current health of the affected populations.

An Equitrans spokesperson said by email that it remains committed to completing the 303-mile line and is evaluating the project's next steps.

The Sierra Club, one of the plaintiffs, said in a statement that the decision "should stop the pipeline's onslaught against one of the largest remaining wild landscapes in the eastern U.S."

The environmental groups sued the FWS in 2020, accusing it of violating the Endangered Species Act. Tyler Cherry, a spokesperson with the Department of the Interior, which oversees the FWS, said it is reviewing the decision.

Analysts at ClearView Energy Partners LLC said the ruling "could push the project's completion into mid-2023 at least."

Mountain Valley is one of several U.S. pipelines delayed by regulatory and legal fights with environmental and local groups that found problems with federal permits issued during President Donald Trump's administration.

The case is Appalachian Voices v. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, No. 20-2159.

For Appalachian Voices: Elly Benson with the Sierra Club

For US Department of the Interior: Kevin McArdle with the U.S. Department of Justice

For Mountain Valley Pipeline, LLC: George Sibley of Hunton Andrews Kurth

Read more:

Mountain Valley Pipeline faces new environmental litigation

U.S. court vacates federal permit for WV-VA Mountain Valley natgas pipe

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